palm sunday

Hosanna!  Hosanna!  He comes in the name of the LORD!

christmas.eve.eve

we went to the annual christmas eve eve candlelight service at church.  this is always a sweet service and this year it was super exciting to have the service in our new building!

these crazy kiddos sang their song from the christmas program again...it was just as sweet the second time around!

great news!!!  i had 4 littles sitting with me during the service and we didn't catch anything on fire or spill any grape juice, but i sweated a bunch.

we had such a special time celebrating the birth of our Savior!

after the service, we put on our pjs, picked up some starbucks, and looked at christmas lights.

christmas shenanigans galore

visitors to our nativity continue...monsty and a snowman came to worship the newborn King!

christmas sock exchange with my crazy fun bible study girls!

ready for the parade to start!

skating with friends!

meet jack, the gingerbread man.  he plays wrestleball. he's the best player on his team.  he averages 50 points a game.  as the best player, he's been chosen to represent the team in their christmas jerseys during this year's holiday ad campaign.

no big deal...just working on a little research project.

love these two a bunch!!!

suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men."

we had a date night and saw "newsies" at the orpheum and it was sooo good!

this girl rocked her zambia presentation! and, we may want to take a trip there now!!!

the girls in my ss class had our annual favorite things/wrapping christmas party!

some of the cousins saw the singing christmas tree!

christmas break, baby!!!

she does all her own wrapping.

ba ba ba buh ba ba buh ba buh...the force has awakened!!!

home for christmas program

grace and a few other kids at church sang a couple of songs in the choir christmas program.

they did such a great job!

grace smiled so much!  it was totally the best part of the entire program!!!

carter man was so proud of his big sister!

and, grace's sweet friend sang her solo so well!!!

harvest joy festival

we had a super fun afternoon at our church's harvest joy festival.  the kids loaded up on candy from all the trunks, played lots of games, bounced in many inflatables, ate too much junk food, and played with great friends!!!

september stuff

we supported the grizz on team night at awana.

this girl is my favorite!

we had fun celebrating with friends at this star wars party!

go girl!

these two.

these are the things nightmares are made of.

my sweet class spoiled me with lots of goodies, cards, a yummy lunch, and tons of hugs on my birthday!

then, grandma came over and watched the kids while john and i went out to dinner together.  it was a perfect birthday!!!

tonight was CrAzY hAiR niGhT at awana!

safe. simple. home.

this much anticipated day had finally arrived.  our church building was complete.  our church has been meeting in community centers and camp buildings for over 6 years.  we finally have a place all our own!

we had the grand opening and ribbon cutting on saturday.

it was so exciting exploring our new building!!!

the building is beautiful and we are blessed to meet here, but it's just premature rubble.  the people and their love for Jesus are what make this place home.

and, on sunday, we packed the place out!!! we may have already outgrown it!

august randoms

carter began his first ever season of soccer

puppy went missing for a few days and we (ahem, i) were very upset about it.  we found a look a like puppy on amazon and ordered it immediately, but, as we already knew, it wasn't the same.  we had searched the house inside out and we decided that he dropped it in the driveway while walking from the car to the house one day after school.  life just wasn't going to be the same anymore and some of us were dealing with it better than others.  then, a miracle happened!  puppy was found!!!  we found it in grace's bed where we had already looked about 15 times.  hallelujah!  we were so happy and carter started sniffing away.  he had to make up for lost time!

we might have a little soccer star here.

we had the awana kickoff and our last meeting in the community center.

completely out of nowhere, he just thanked me for teaching him how to wipe his bottom.  i guess this parenting thing isn't always a thankless job!